Libya forges US compensation deal

[SpikeTss]

Source: Al Jazeera

The United States and Libya have agreed a deal on compensating victims of terror attacks blamed on Libya, the US state department has said.

The deal includes compensation for families of victims of the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland, in which 270 people died, and other attacks tied to Libyan agents, the state department said on Friday.

...

Libya reportedly sought the global settlement talks out of concern over US legislation that gave terror victims greater ability to collect damages from governments by having their assets frozen, one US official
told Reuters.

'No specific amount'

The settlements will also address victims of a 1986 Berlin disco bombing that killed two US servicemen and the 1989 suitcase bombing of a French airliner over Niger that killed 170 people.

A US judge in January had ordered Libya to pay billions of dollars in damages to relatives of Americans killed in the 1989 airliner case.

However, Libya did not propose a specific dollar amount when it mooted the prospect of a comprehensive settlement in March, state department officials told AP.

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan president, had agreed to compensate the families of Lockerbie victims $10 million but so far only $8 million has been paid per victim.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F8F10B4E-74AF-48D7-9221-45301DE7ADA1.htm

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Kidnapping the Bulgarian nurses who went to Libya to help and work there made the regime a profit of nearly $500 million , so I guess the Libyans can throw the victims of their terrorist atrocities a few bread crumbs now.

Nice new friends the Bush regime has made ...

[Ezana]

1. You sound racist, do not Libyan children count as victims who deserve compensation ? The 500 million

You sound racist, do not Libyan children count as victims who deserve compensation ? The 500 million Dollar is a compensation package to the families of the children.

[SpikeTss]

2. It seems you haven't followed the case

One of Gaddafi's sons admitted, that the allegations against the nurses were completely fabricated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_trial_in_Libya

10 August 2007, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the leader of Libya admitted that the confessions were extracted through torture with electric shocks and threats targeted at the medic's families, and confirmed that some of the children had been infected with HIV before the medics arrived in Libya

Imagine this: You travel to a foreign country with the best intentions, to help the people there who suffer under a ruthless and volatile regime and then you get abducted and tortured. You really think we should make friends with such a regime? Only last year the doctor and nurses were ravished by the Libyans in every imaginable way. Look, what happened to those poor medical experts:

"They tied my hands behind my back," she wrote. "Then they hung me from a door. It feels like they are stretching you from all sides. My torso was twisted and my shoulders were dislocated from their joints from time to time. The pain cannot be described. The translator was shouting, 'Confess or you will die here.

...


Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a, the Palestinian Intern, told Human Rights Watch “We had barbaric, sadistic torture for a crime we didn’t do,” “They used electric shocks, drugs, beatings, police dogs, sleep prevention.” The interview was conducted in the presence of a prison guard. “The confession was like multiple choice, and when I gave a wrong answer they shocked me,”<36>

Valentina Siropulo, told Human Rights Watch “I confessed during torture with electricity. They put small wires on my toes and on my thumbs. Sometimes they put one on my thumb and another on either my tongue, neck or ear,” “They had two kinds of machines, one with a crank and one with buttons.”

Kristiana Valceva, said interrogators used a small machine with cables and a handle that produced electricity. “During the shocks and torture they asked me where the AIDS came from and what is your role...” She said that Libyan interrogators subjected her to electric shocks on her breasts and genitals. “My confession was all in Arabic without translation,” ... “We were ready to sign anything just to stop the torture.”<36><37>

Lawyers for the accused medical personnel have asked for 5 million Libyan dinars (approx. 3.7M USD/3.1M EUR) as compensation. Much of the evidence is based on medical reports prepared by authorities from Bulgaria relating to marks and scars on the defendants.